Kings fans celebrate NBA owners' vote

Horns blared around the Capitol and cheers erupted from bars as the NBA made it official and said the Kings would stay put, despite aggressive efforts by an investment group in Seattle to drag them away.

"This is huge," said an elated Jacob Hunley as revelers celebrated the news at a bar just blocks from where investors plan to build a new arena to house the team. "It shows that loyalty and supporting your team through good times and bad pays off, and it's not just about the money. This is where the Kings belong."

Anxious fans dressed in the home team's purple and black packed the Firestone sports bar as word spread that an announcement was expected Wednesday afternoon. The local sports talk radio station broadcast live.

When NBA Commissioner David Stern finally appeared on the many TV monitors, fans fell silent.

"The appropriate outcome was to keep the team in Sacramento," Stern said to hoots and cheers.

Stern then said it would be his job to convince the Maloof family that owns the team to begin negotiations with an investment group assembled by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star.

"Does KJ get a statue in front of the new arena?" shouted longtime fan Josh Hamilton.

"In Kevin Johnson we trust," said season ticket holder Jim Amen, who wore the jersey of No. 16 Peja Stojakovic, the Kings' first-round draft pick in 1996. "This meant a lot to our city. It's not just about basketball, but about revitalizing our downtown."

The Kings are the capitol city's only major sports franchise. Johnson also has secured an investment group to build a $447 million arena with a $258 million public subsidy at the site of a shopping center at the western gateway to downtown. The area five blocks from the Capitol lacks the thriving storefront businesses and trendy restaurants that populate the central part of downtown and is in need of revitalization.

"This is an ownership group that has played to win and kept us in the game. In the next few days we can close this out and move on to a new chapter in Sacramento," Johnson said at a press conference after the announcement at an owner's meeting in Dallas. "You will see Sacramento changed forever for the good because of what has transpired over the last several days."

The Kings have played in Sacramento since 1985, lately in an outdated arena in the suburbs north of town.

A group led by investor Chris Hansen had a deal to buy the team and hoped to move it to Seattle. As Sacramento officials fought back, Hanson kept upping the offer for a 65 percent controlling interest in the team until it reached $625 million, a record.

The Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 and were renamed the Thunder.

Stern said the league will spend the next 24 to 48 hours talking to the Maloofs about working out a deal with the ownership group in Sacramento led by TIBCO software chairman Vivek Ranadive.

It was all good news to fan Troy Bedal, who brought his 9-year-old daughter Saraya out to celebrate the announcement. Saraya said she likes to attend the games because she aspires to be one of the Kings dancers. Her father said they hope having a new arena downtown will mean more father-daughter events, and perhaps even the return of the WNBA Monarchs that might also inspire her future.

"We need the WNBA back too," Troy Bedal said. "That's also part of the movement."

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